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Annabelle
"Miss me?" - ''Annabelle's message to Donna and Angie on parchment paper Annabelle is a doll that is claimed to be haunted by Ed and Lorraine Warren. Today, the doll resides in a glass box at The Warren's Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. The story of the doll served as the inspiration for the films ''Annabelle (2014), and ''The Conjuring ''(2013). She has often been compared to Robert the Doll. Annabelle was featured in Gerald Brittle's 2002 documentary of Ed and Lorraine Warren, ''The Demonologist. ''According to the Warrens, Annabelle was used as a conduit for a demon, and the demon latched itself onto her, where it remains today. Origins In the movies ''Annabelle, ''and ''The Conjuring, ''director and producer James Wan redesigned Annabelle to give her a much scarier and sinister appearance, but in real life, she was simply a Raggedy Ann doll. The story of Annabelle began in 1970, when a college student named Donna received the doll from her mother for Christmas. Donna's mother reportedly bought the doll at a local hobby store. Donna at the time was living with a roommate named Angie, both girls were studying to become nurses. Over time, both girls noticed that the doll would move on her own. Though at first, these movements were very subtle, and were only changes in position. It was almost like someone jostled the doll. Eventually the movement increased, and within just two weeks, the doll seemed to become completely mobile. The girls would leave the apartment with Annabelle on Donna's bed, and return to find her on the couch. Lou, a friend of the girls, hated the doll. He thought their was something deeply wrong with it, something evil. However, the college nurses were modern women, and believed in no such thing. They reasoned that their had to be a simple explanation. Annabelle's actions in the apartment seemed to be getting weirder. Donna soon began finding pieces of parchment paper scrawled through out the apartment with messages written on them. "Help us", they would say, or even "Help Lou". One message read "Miss me?" To make the whole experience creepier, nobody in the house had parchment paper, so where was it coming from? The escalation continued. One night Donna returned home and found Annabelle in her bed with blood or crimson-like liquid on her hands. It seemed to be coming from Annabelle herself. Donna had had enough at this point, and she decides to contact a medium. The medium told the girls that long before their apartment complex had been built, there had been a field on the property at which they were living. A 7-year-old girl named Annabelle Higgins had been found dead in the field. She explained that the girl's spirit remained, and that when the doll was brought into the house, Higgins latched onto it. She explained to Donna and Angie that Annabelle found the girls trustworthy, and that she simply wanted to stay with them, to be safe with them. Being sweet nurturing nurses, both girls allowed Annabelle to stay with them. Lou, who was now dating Angie and living with the girls in the apartment, started having nightmares where Annabelle was in his bed, climbing up his leg as he lay frozen, and grabbed his throat and began chocking him out with her stuffed hands. He would then wake up completely terrified, with his head pounding like all blood had been cut off to his brain. He began freaking out, and started worrying about the girls. A few days later, while studying road maps for a future road trip along with Angie, both hear someone moving around in Donna's room. Both feared it could be a break in, so Lou crept over to the door, still hearing various rustling sounds. When he threw open the door, he saw everything as it should be, except Annabelle was no longer on the bed, but was sitting in the corner. While approaching the doll, Lou was consumed with a burning sensation on the back of his neck, likely indicating that something was staring at him. He immediately spun around. While no one was there, he felt a sudden pain on his chest. When he looked in his shirt, he found a series of raking claw marks, rough stride-like ditches in his flesh that burned. He knew Annabelle was responsible. The strange claw marks began healing rapidly, and were completely gone within two days. They were unlike any wounds the three had ever seen before. Knowing they needed more help with the doll, they turn to a Episcopalian priest, who in turn called in paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. After hearing Donna and Angie's story about the doll, they almost immediately came to a conclusion, they tell both girls that there was no ghost possessing the doll, but an inhuman spirit, a demon. They explain that demons don't possess things, only people, and that the doll was being used as a conduit. The demon simply took the form of Annabelle Higgins in order to manipulate and target Donna's soul. It had latched itself onto the doll. A priest performed an exorcism on the apartment, and the Warrens took possession of the doll. They place the Raggedy Ann doll in a bag and begin the long drive home to Connecticut. Ed feared that the doll might mess with the car on the highway, and he agreed without hesitation to stay off of them. Especially since the speed limit would be 65 miles an hour. Ed was right. While the Warrens drove on the back roads, the demon interfered with the engine, causing it to cut out, and the power steering kept failing. Ed then opened the trunk, and sprinkled some Holy Water on the doll, it seemed to keep it at bay for the moment. They were able to make it home in one peace. Back at their home, Annabelle did very little to evade attention of paranormal activity. Ed once left the doll on his desk, and it began levitating. This occurred quite a few times, and the levitating eventually quit by itself. In a couple of weeks, the doll was back to her old tricks. She started appearing in different rooms of the Warren home. Sensing that the doll was ramping back up, the pair called a Catholic priest to exorcise Annabelle. The priest didn't seem to take the exorcism clearly, however, and told the doll - "You're just a doll. You can't hurt anyone!" Annabelle had plans in store for that comment, and on his way home, the priest's brakes failed, and his car was totaled in a horrible car accident. Luckily, he survived. Eventually Ed and Lorraine built a locked case for Annabelle, and placed a sign in front of the case that read: "WARNING, POSITIVELY DO NOT OPEN". The doll resides in the Warren's Occult Museum to this day. Now on display, Annabelle was still able to cause harm. A biker and his girlfriend visited the museum, and according to Ed, he taunted and banged on Annabelle's glass case. While driving home, the biker and his girlfriend endured a terrible vehicular accident, and it killed the man and confined the woman to a coma for nearly a year. Warren's Occult Museum After confiscating the doll from the two college students, the Warrens built Annabelle a glass case, where the doll remains incarcerated to this day. She is currently on display in the Warrens Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. Visitation hours and information about visiting the museum can be found at the Warrens website at www.warrens.net. Annabelle is one of several haunted artifacts within the museum, and she is mainly considered as the worst of the worst within the place. Portrayal in Film In film, director and producer James Wan had Annabelle redesigned to give the viewers a scary and more sinister feeling in Annabelle and The Conjuring. This porcelain doll is widely considered the most terrific yet terrifying version of Annabelle. In the film "The Conjuring", she had a very small role, but returned in the prequel "Annabelle" with a larger role. James Wan wanted to make the doll look scarier then the real life Raggedy Ann doll that resided in the Warrens home, but it seemed he wanted to give a sense of feeling that nobody had ever felt before in dolls.